Sanatorium suit, 7-Eleven shootings, slave ship ceremony: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Mobile: Descendants of the last African people abducted into slavery and brought to America’s shores gathered over the weekend on a riverbank to pay tribute to their ancestors. The descendants of the 110 people aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring enslaved African people to the United States, held a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the vessel’s arrival. Dressed in white and walking slowly to the beat of an African drum, the descendants made their way to the banks of the Mobile River near Alabama’s coast. A wreath of white, yellow and red flowers was carried into the river by a kayaker and released into the waters. The event marked the anniversary of the ship arriving 162 years ago with 110 enslaved people brought to the country against their will from what is now the west African nation of Benin, said Darron Patterson, president of the Clotilda Descendants Association. The 1860 voyage, which happened decades after the law banning the importation of slaves had taken effect, began as a bet when a wealthy plantation owner wagered he could import a shipload of slaves without being caught. The 2019 discovery of the remnants of the Clotilda sparked renewed interest in its saga. But Patterson said the focus should be on the people it carried. “It’s not about the ship. It’s not about sails or nails or wood. It’s about the people who were in the cargo hold. And their stories were amazing stories,” he said. Patterson’s great-great-grandfather, Kupollee – a beekeeper, farmer and woodworker – was one of the 110 on the ship.

Alaska

Anchorage: Masks are again required for people using federal buildings or riding buses inside Denali National Park and Preserve because of high COVID-19 levels in the broader community. The park is instituting the mandate per U.S. Interior Department guidelines, which require masks when COVID-19 community levels reach the high status in the surrounding area. Both the Denali Borough north of the park and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough south of Denali reported their status as high in data to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Masks covering the nose and mouth will be required for everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status. They must be worn in all common and shared workspaces in buildings owned or controlled by the National Park Service, including visitor centers, lodges, gift shops and restaurants. Masks also are required to ride buses and courtesy shuttles inside the park.

Arizona

Phoenix: A three-member U.S. appeals court panel has sided with state prison officials’ ban on sexually explicit material for inmates, denying a prison journal’s claims of First Amendment violations. The 9th Circuit panel in San Francisco issued an opinion Friday mostly supporting the Arizona Department of Corrections’ previous censorship of various issues of Prison Legal News. The state had challenged a district court’s permanent injunction of the ban and an order to deliver four issues unredacted. “We conclude that most of the Department’s redactions of the Prison Legal News issues … abide by the First Amendment,” Circuit Judge Eric Miller wrote. For example, it found the redaction of graphic passages from an October 2014 article were “rationally related” to discouraging sexual harassment of corrections officers. Representatives for the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Human Rights Defense Center, which publishes Prison Legal News, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday. The department established an order in 2010 prohibiting prisoners from sending, receiving or possessing sexually explicit material or content seen as “detrimental” to the safety and operation of prison facilities. It was issued after mostly female staff complained inmates were harassing them with sexual images.

Arkansas

Springdale: Police have arrested a man on an attempted capital murder charge in a shooting that caused mass flight from a concert in the state’s northwest. Officers arrived at Parsons Stadium in Springdale soon before 11 p.m. Saturday to find a crowd fleeing and a man in his 20s with a gunshot wound in the “upper torso,” city police said in a statement. Capt. Jeff Taylor told the Associated Press he did not know who was performing or whether anyone else was injured in the evacuation. Paramedics took the wounded man to a local hospital, where witnesses told investigators that the suspected gunman was Erik Navareyes, according to the statement. About 1 a.m. Sunday, officers found Navareyes at a hospital in the neighboring community of Rogers. Police said hospital staff told them the 21-year-old had sought treatment there, saying he was in a fight and shot someone. Police arrested Navareyes and took him to the Washington County jail. He was not listed in jail records Sunday afternoon, and Taylor said he did not know whether the man had a lawyer. Taylor said that the gunshot victim survived but that he could not provide additional information on his health.

California

Los Angeles: Two people were killed and three wounded in shootings before dawn Monday at four 7-Eleven stores in Southern California, and authorities said they were seeking a lone gunman in at least three of the shootings. The shootings appear to have occurred after robberies or attempted robberies at the four convenience stores on July 11, or 7/11 – a day when the national 7-Eleven brand was celebrating its 95th birthday by giving out free Slurpee drinks. “Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones,” 7-Eleven Inc. said in a statement. “We are gathering information on this terrible tragedy and working with local law enforcement.” It wasn’t immediately clear to investigators what prompted the shootings in the cities of Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea and La Habra, nor why the violence occurred July 11. “I think the only person to answer that would be the suspect,” said Officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, where the first shooting happened about 1:50 a.m. “There’s no way it can be a coincidence of it being 7-Eleven, July 11.”

Colorado

Colorado Springs: The state Department of Corrections has rescinded a new policy barring parole officers from seeking criminal charges for people escaping community-corrections halfway houses after criticism that it would jeopardize public safety. State corrections officials reversed course last week and reinstituted seeking arrest warrants for halfway house escapes, The Gazette reports. The move by the Corrections Department not to pursue arrest warrants for individuals transitioning from prison who had escaped from halfway houses had generated criticism from law enforcement officials, prosecutors and halfway house operators. “This is nothing short of a dereliction of DOC’s duty to keep local communities safe while transitioning offenders back into those same communities,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader wrote in a June 27 letter to Dean Williams, the executive director of the Department of Corrections. Because of the pushback, Williams and Stan Hilkey, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the state agency that oversees community-corrections halfway houses, planned to discuss the subject last week. Late Wednesday afternoon, Merideth McGrath, the Corrections Department’s director of parole, announced to her agency that she was reinstating seeking arrest warrants for such cases.

Connecticut

Waterbury: Years of attack by an invasive beetle species have decimated the state’s population of ash trees, endangering power lines and roadways and stretching towns’ budgets as they attempt to remove potential hazards. The iridescent green emerald ash borer beetle is believed to have come from Asia through Canada to the U.S. about 20 years ago and into Connecticut about 10 years ago. Experts say millions of the trees are now dead or dying. “It’s fair to say that all ash trees will succumb, in pockets more dramatically than others,” State Forester Chris Martin told The Republican-American. Removing a dead ash tree from private property can cost between $400 and $1,200, and decisions about who is responsible for tree removal are made in consultation with local tree wardens. Falling trees have killed two people in the state in recent years. “Some weeks we get bills for $12,000 or $8,000. It’s costing the town a lot of money,” Goshen First Selectman Todd Carusillo told the newspaper. Eversource has a $33 million budget for tree removal in 149 towns along 16,000 miles of roads. Sean Redding, the utility’s manager of vegetation, told the newspaper most trees in western Connecticut have already been affected and have been removed or fallen down on their own without risk to overhead lines or motorists.

Delaware

Fenwick Island: Golf carts and other low-speed vehicles are once again allowed on some town streets after a Chancery Court official ordered the resort town to temporarily suspend enforcement of its ban. Resident Kim Espinosa sued Fenwick Island in late June in an attempt to overturn the town’s ordinance that prohibited most low-speed vehicles, including the yellow Moke – a specific type of electric golf cart – that Espinosa and her family have been using to get around Fenwick for the past year. Espinosa said she attempted to work with the town before going to the court system, to no avail. While Fenwick officials did not wish to comment on the pending litigation, the March ordinance says the ban was designed to “promote the public health, safety and general welfare of the property owners and residents of the Town of Fenwick Island.” In the June 21 lawsuit, Espinosa argued that the town’s ordinance interferes with her property rights and is in direct conflict with the state law regulating low-speed vehicles. The Delaware law allows LSVs – four-wheeled vehicles, excluding trucks, that can reach up to 20 mph but no more than 25 mph on paved surfaces – on any two-lane roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less. LSVs are not permitted on any dual highways unless to cross the highway to get to the other side.

District of Columbia

Washington: The National Park Service has proposed closing the upper portion of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park in an effort to protect natural resources and improve recreation, WUSA-TV reports. The upper portion would be closed to cars from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day every year, as the summer season often brings more people out to enjoy the park. It would remain open to drivers when many tourists and nature-lovers retreat in the chillier months. According to Chelsea Sullivan, a public affairs specialist with the National Park Service, the seasonal closure would include Bingham Drive, Sherrill Drive and Beach Drive in three sections. In late April 2020, the NPS temporarily expanded the closure of the upper portion of Beach Drive to increase socially distanced recreational opportunities for pedestrians and cyclists. The Park Service said the 2020 closure provided a “valuable opportunity for park visitors to recreate more freely and safely within Rock Creek Park.” The agency is inviting the public to review the environmental assessment and share comments through Aug. 11.

Florida

Daytona Beach: After an arduous five-year process that involved a series of state and federal approvals, a fundraising effort that generated nearly $1 million, logistical challenges, and unimagined complications that included a global pandemic, the towering marble statue honoring Mary McLeod Bethune will be unveiled this week in the nation’s capital. At 11 a.m. Wednesday, the sculpture that was artfully chiseled out of a 13-foot-long block of precious marble will be dedicated in the U.S. Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall. Civic leaders and elected officials in Daytona Beach see the milestone as an opportunity to introduce the world to the accomplishments of one of the city’s iconic figures, depicted in a statue conceived and created with meticulous attention to detail. The statue will be one of the two representing Florida in the Capitol, replacing a nearly 100-year-old bronze sculpture of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. And Bethune’s statue will be the first representing a Black person in the state collection inside Statuary Hall. Four other Black people are represented in other parts of the Capitol: Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks. The Smith statue was removed this past fall and will be placed in temporary storage at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

Georgia

Elberton: Two days after the Georgia Guidestones were destroyed by a bomb, a group of Elbert County residents gathered at the crime scene with a backhoe to dig further into the mysterious 42-year-old landmark. When the Stonehenge-type monument north of Elberton was unveiled in 1980, it was noted that a time capsule was buried 6 feet below the gigantic stone monoliths. “We dug down about 7 feet until we hit compacted Georgia red clay that had never been disturbed – and we found nothing,” Chris Kubas, executive vice president of the Elberton Granite Association, said Friday. “We didn’t know what we were likely to find anyway.” The lack of the time capsule is yet another mystery clouding the Georgia Guidestones, a roadside attraction that had brought thousands of tourists a year to Elberton. The granite sculpture generated publicity over the years in numerous books, television documentaries and social media hype. Before dawn July 6, someone set off a bomb that shattered one of the 19-foot-high, 28-ton blocks of granite. Now that the county’s most widely discussed landmark is gone, there is some talk about rebuilding. “I’ve had several granite manufacturers tell me they would be interested in donating resources and materials to rebuild if ultimately that is decided,” Kubas said.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Gov. David Ige signed a law Monday authorizing $600 million toward housing for Native Hawaiians through the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, HawaiiNewsNow reports.

Idaho

Boise: Gem State native and “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul is putting his midcentury modern home in the city on the market, the Idaho Press reports. Designed by renowned architect Art Troutner and taking after the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, the home – known as “The Klein House” – boasts more than 2,000 square feet and was listed last week for more than $1.3 million. Paul and his wife also own a large home in McCall, Idaho, according to the newspaper.

Illinois

Springfield: The head of the Illinois Department of Human Services has been ordered to return to Sangamon County Circuit Court on charges of ignoring another court order to transport a county jail inmate into state custody. The court ruled Friday that Grace Hou, secretary of IDHS, must appear in court July 15 to respond to charges of ignoring an order to place Christopher Hall, 38, of Beloit, Wisconsin, in the Andrew McFarland Mental Health Center for psychiatric treatment. Hall, who had been charged last year on four counts of first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, being an armed habitual offender and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon in the shooting death of Hason Willis, 43, of Springfield, was ruled unfit to stand trial in May and ordered to be placed at McFarland. However, the order said that as of Friday, he had not been placed there, remaining in custody at the Sangamon County Jail. IDHS had previously been held in contempt last month in a similar case in which a Springfield man had not been transported to state custody despite a court order. Judge Adam Giganti had ruled that DHS would have to pay $100 a day each day that he was not in state custody.

Indiana

Lafayette: Back a Boiler, Purdue University’s controversial income share agreement program, has been suspended for the upcoming academic year, but previous participants are still on the hook for costly contracts many say they signed after falling for deceptive marketing tactics. The decision to suspend the program raised questions for Purdue students and alumni holding Back a Boiler agreements, which require participants to pay back a portion of their post-graduation monthly earnings for a set period of time or until they hit a maximum payment cap. The program has been under fire since an advocacy group asked the U.S. Department of Education to investigate it, alleging that some of the marketing tactics and agreement terms violate federal law. Purdue has “brazenly ignored” rules and laws that govern financial products such as the income share agreements it offers, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center. In its letter to the education department, the nonprofit alleges that the university has done so “as part of a scheme to drive its students to take on risky, high-rate private student loans.” The university has denied any wrongdoing. A spokesperson said that the program was suspended due to a change in the third party that services the agreements and that it had no bearing on the outstanding contracts.

Iowa

Des Moines: A beach at Lake of Three Fires State Park is closed as a precaution after a swimmer was diagnosed with Naegleria fowleri, commonly called “brain-eating amoeba,” according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The closure is in response to the confirmed infection of the microscopic, single-celled, free-living amoeba in a Missouri resident with a potential exposure while swimming at the park in southern Iowa’s Taylor County. The swimmer, undergoing treatment in an intensive care unit for the infection, was likely exposed to the Iowa lake water over the last two weeks of June, though officials didn’t have specific dates. Iowa state health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are testing to confirm the presence of the infection in the lake. Naegleria fowleri is typically found in warm bodies of fresh water such as lakes, rivers and ponds. It can “cause a rare, life-threatening infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis,” health officials said in the release. People are infected when water containing the amoeba enters the body through the nose, usually while swimming or diving in lakes and rivers. It cannot spread from one person to another, health officials said. Infections are rare, with 33 across the U.S. from 2011 to 2020, according to the CDC.

Kansas

Topeka: The city saw a 78% rise last year in the number of traffic crashes that occur at its intersections and is on pace to finish this year with a similar total. Meanwhile, a growing number of residents have told police Chief Bryan Wheeles they think Topeka’s intersections have become less safe – particularly due to drivers running red lights, police Capt. Colleen Stuart said. Officers are responding this month by cracking down on drivers who run red lights as part of an initiative to make Topeka intersections safer, the police department announced June 30 on its Facebook page. “You may see a concentration of officers at various intersections throughout our city reinforcing safe driving practices,” that post said. It drew an enthusiastic response from Facebook users, who made more than 200 comments in reply. “Thank you!” wrote local resident Susan Blanck-Harlan. “Innocent people are going to get killed, if this isn’t stopped.” Another person joked about how often he sees drivers run red lights. He wrote: “No cop, no stop.” Topeka Municipal Court assesses a $100 fine for a red light violation, plus court costs totaling $76, according to its website.

Kentucky

Louisville: Another lawsuit has been filed over the historic Waverly Hills Sanatorium, touted by paranormal thrill-seekers as one of the most spirit-infested places in the world. The new filing last month by owner Charlie Mattingly and CEM Land Co., which Mattingly formed more than 20 years ago to buy the land, seeks to evict the historical society he created to maintain the facility and handle tours. The Waverly Hills Historical Society says it’s still on the premises, but Mattingly is pushing for the historical society to vacate the property within seven days of the court’s approval. The case filed in Jefferson District Court is set for a pretrial conference July 18. Mattingly and the Waverly Hills Historical Society already were engaged in a bitter legal dispute over its ownership. The historical society has argued Mattingly failed to maintain the grounds and damaged the property with its actions, prompting members to push to evict him. Mattingly counters that those claims are unfounded and that his ouster has sullied his reputation. Historical society President Renae Clark said in the 2021 lawsuit that Mattingly and his wife were “required” to leave the property nearly two years ago after his wife, Tina Mattingly, was fired as the historical society’s executive director over “internal complaints.”

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: The superintendent of Louisiana State Police has acknowledged he was pulled over for speeding in an unmarked work vehicle but did not receive a ticket from one of his own officers. Col. Lamar Davis told WAFB-TV he accepts responsibility but does not remember how fast he was driving. A state trooper pulled Davis over June 28 on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge along Interstate 10 west of Baton Rouge. “I was simply wrong in that situation,” Davis said in an interview Friday. “There is no excuse for it, other than I need to slow my butt down.” The head of Louisiana State Police public affairs, Capt. Nick Manale, said the trooper “utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation.” Manale said the trooper did not make notes about how fast Davis was driving in the area where the speed limit was 60 mph. WAFB obtained a copy of the trooper’s body camera footage through a public records request. On Thursday, Louisiana State Police released the trooper’s body camera footage and a snippet of video from the trooper’s dashboard camera. The body camera footage cuts off as soon as the trooper exits his vehicle and recognizes he has pulled over his boss. “Well, I’ll be,” the trooper says just before the video stops.

Maine

Brooksville: A superfund mining site is receiving $21 million in Environmental Protection Agency funding to expedite contamination cleanup efforts. The Callahan Mine superfund site in Brooksville originally received $9 million from the bipartisan federal infrastructure bill passed in November last year, but an additional $12 million has now been approved to address the contamination at the site, the EPA said in a statement. “It’s a priority for EPA to get this site off the Superfund backlog list. Cleaning up this site is key for the Brooksville community to develop alternatives for potential future uses in this area,” New England’s EPA director David Cash said in the statement. Brooksville site has been on a priority list for the EPA since 2002 and has been waiting for funding since the current cleanup phase in 2019. The funding is a part of a larger plan the agency has to help clean up superfund sites in communities across the country.

Maryland

Baltimore: After securing a new state permit, a Johns Hopkins University researcher will be allowed to continue medical experiments on barn owls that have been criticized by a leading animal rights group. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has campaigned for years to end the researcher’s experiments it calls “cruel” and “worthless,” The Baltimore Sun reports. The group has lodged complaints with state regulators about the legality of Hopkins’ testing practices. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources last month issued Hopkins a new permit that allows the experiments to continue. The university has defended the experiments, saying associate professor Shreesh Mysore’s work could yield critical insight into medical conditions, including ADHD, autism and schizophrenia. The experiments involve the placement of electrodes into the brains of the owls. The electrodes do not hurt or damage the birds, though the owls are ultimately euthanized, Eric Hutchinson, director of the university’s Research Animal Resources, told the newspaper.

Massachusetts

Boston: Signs around a construction site for what’s been called the first LGBTQ-friendly senior affordable housing project in New England were vandalized with threatening graffiti over the weekend, drawing quick condemnation from civic leaders. The messages in black spray paint were left on signs on the security fence around the former school in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood, according to LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., the nonprofit behind the 74-unit complex known as The Pryde. The project that broke ground last month is expected to welcome its first residents in late 2023. Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., doesn’t live far from the construction site and said she started getting emails about the vandalism from neighbors out walking their dogs about 8:30 a.m. Sunday. “We’ve received such widespread support in the neighborhood, and we’ve really been welcomed,” she said. “This is not how the majority of people in Hyde Park feel.” The vandalism was reported to Boston police just before 11 a.m. Sunday, a department spokesperson said Monday. The matter was referred to the department’s civil rights unit, Officer Andre Watson said. There had been no arrests as of Monday morning. At an afternoon rally, Mayor Michelle Wu called the vandalism “pathetic.”

Michigan

Lansing: Abortion rights are poised to come before the state’s voters in November after an abortion rights campaign turned in a record-breaking number of signatures Monday for a ballot initiative to the secretary of state’s office. The effort will further increase attention on Michigan’s elections, where the battleground state’s Democratic governor and attorney general have made abortion rights a centerpiece of their reelection campaigns. The push to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states the power to decide whether to ban the procedure. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. Michigan is among several states with a pre-Roe abortion law that was set to take effect if the federal judicial ruling was overturned. However, a judge issued an injunction that temporarily blocked the 1931 law, which would make abortion a felony in all cases, except when “necessary to preserve the life of such woman.” “The number of signatures showed that here in Michigan we trust women. We trust people. We trust doctors, not politicians, to make decisions about our body, our pregnancy and parenthood,” Reproductive Freedom for All spokesperson Shanay Watson-Whittaker said during a news conference in Lansing.

Minnesota

St. Paul: A judge declared many of the state’s restrictions on abortion unconstitutional Monday, including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion. Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan also struck down Minnesota’s requirements that only physicians can perform abortions and that abortions after the first trimester must be performed in hospitals. His order took effect immediately, meaning the limits can’t be enforced. Gilligan ruled in a lawsuit by Gender Justice and other abortion rights supporters that successfully argued the restrictions were unconstitutional under a landmark 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling known as Doe v. Gomez, which held that the state constitution protects abortion rights. The judge called that case “significant and historic” and said it’s unaffected by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. “These abortion laws violate the right to privacy because they infringe upon the fundamental right under the Minnesota Constitution to access abortion care and do not withstand strict scrutiny,” Gilligan wrote.

Mississippi

Jackson: A judge has ruled that the mayor did not have the power to veto a contract that the City Council had not approved. Judge Larry Roberts issued his ruling Friday in a dispute among Jackson officials over who will be paid to collect garbage, news outlets report. The Jackson City Council sued after Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued an emergency order to award a garbage collection contract to Richard’s Disposal. The council had voted multiple times against giving the contract to the the New Orleans-based company. “There’s nothing there to veto. The council didn’t pass affirmatively the matter. It rejected it,” said Roberts, a retired Mississippi Court of Appeals judge who was appointed to hear the case in Hinds County Chancery Court. Jessica Ayers, an attorney for the mayor, argued that he has the power to veto the negative vote. “You can expect the possibility of us appealing this matter,” Lumumba said.

Missouri

Cape Girardeau: A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit by Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt that blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh said in his 38-page ruling that in this case federal rules prohibit a sovereign foreign entity from being sued in American courts. “All in all, the court has no choice but to dismiss this novel complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” Limbaugh stated in the final line of the dismissal order. The judge noted earlier in the opinion that the civil suit against China is one of many filed “amidst the wreckage of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Schmitt’s office said it would appeal the ruling. The complaint filed in April 2020 alleges that Chinese officials are “responsible for the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians.” Schmitt said the Chinese government lied about the dangers of the virus and didn’t do enough to slow its spread. China criticized the lawsuit as “very absurd” and said it has no factual and legal basis. Schmitt called the lawsuit historic, but legal experts mostly panned it as a stunt aimed at shifting blame to China for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Montana

Helena: Kris Hansen, who recently departed the No. 2 post at the Montana Attorney General’s Office, has died at age 52, according to state officials. A news release from the Montana Department of Justice said Hansen died early Thursday, the Independent Record reports. No information about her cause of death was released. Hansen was named chief deputy of the Montana Department of Justice in December 2020. Before that, she worked for the Montana state Auditor’s office and represented Havre as a Republican state lawmaker. In late May, Hansen confirmed she was leaving the office but declined to say why. The Attorney General’s Office said at the time that she was leaving to “attend to personal and family matters.” “Kris was a dear friend, a conservative leader, and an amazing woman who dedicated her life to others,” Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement Friday. Hansen was a central figure during the state Republicans’ conflict with the judicial branch last year. Hansen, representing GOP lawmakers who’d subpoenaed judicial records, wrote a public letter accusing the Supreme Court of interfering with a legislative investigation by quashing a subpoena for judicial records. The court ultimately ruled state lawmakers had overstepped their authority with the subpoenas.

Nebraska

Lincoln: Republican state Sen. Mike Flood will officially join the U.S. House on Tuesday, when he’s sworn in to fill the seat of disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. Flood will take his oath of office at the U.S. Capitol. Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, defeated Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks in a special election to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Lincoln and dozens of smaller communities. Fortenberry, a Republican, resigned in March shortly after a California jury found him guilty of charges that he lied to federal investigators about $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions from a Nigerian billionaire. He was sentenced to probation and fined. Flood will hold the seat until at least January, for what would have been the rest of Fortenberry’s term. He’ll face Pansing Brooks again in the November general election to determine who serves the next full term.

Nevada

Las Vegas: Visitors to the Fremont Street Experience will be required to go through metal detectors and bag checks and will be subject to age requirements to enter the Las Vegas pedestrian mall in a new step to curb increased violence. Metal detectors, bag checks, a curfew for unaccompanied minors and 18- to 20-year-olds, and increased law enforcement presence will be used on weekends until further notice, according to Fremont Street Experience officials. The security measures come in response to increased aggravated assaults and a recent homicide at the downtown tourist spot. “The safety and security of our guests, employees and tenants has been and will always be our priority,” Andrew Simon, Fremont Street Experience’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Everything else is secondary. The incidents from the past week cannot and will not be tolerated. Our tourism, jobs and safety will not be threatened by these actions.” Public safety officials said they have noticed an increase in violent crime on and around the five-block district, where visitors often gather to visit casinos, see concerts, drink and gawk at the canopied video screen.

New Hampshire

Franklin: Pots, pans, silverware and a foot warmer were among the nearly two dozen items stolen from the house where statesman Daniel Webster was born, a state parks official said. Webster, a lawyer and orator who served as secretary of state under three presidents and represented Massachusetts and New Hampshire in Congress, was born in the two-room cabin in Franklin in 1782. Randy Kovach of the New Hampshire State Parks told WMUR-TV that most of the items, which were taken sometime between July 3 and July 8, are replicas and don’t have much value. “They were all mostly either pewter, tin or iron,” Kovach said. “So if you wanted to melt them down, you’re going to weigh a lot, but you’re not going to get a lot of money.” Franklin police said they’ve reached out to pawn shops and are using K-9 dogs to try to track down the items. “It saddens me that we can’t give quite the educational show that we’d do if we had those items to explain to the children and the people about the way we lived in the 1700s,” Kovach said. “Whoever took them – I hope they can make a good home for them and needed them more than we did.”

New Jersey

Wall: A black bear and two cubs were spotted at Shark River Park on Thursday amid a spike of sightings near the Jersey Shore. Summer Hill Camp decided to keep kids off trails after a staff member reported seeing the bear family, camp Director Lauren Cheney said. The sighting was just one of about a dozen and a half this year in Monmouth County. Bears have been sighted in Freehold Township, Holmdel, Howell, Middletown and Atlantic Highlands. Another bear was spotted in Wall in May, said Caryn Shinske, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. In 2021, there were two bears seen in Monmouth County, according to the DEP. Ocean County has also seen a sharp uptick. A bear or bears have been spotted in Barnegat, Lakewood, Little Egg Harbor, Stafford and Toms River. So why the Jersey Shore? Brooke Maslo, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers, said while the bear population is mostly concentrated in the northwest part of the state − hemmed in by Routes 80 and 287 because they’re so hard to cross − there are black bears in all 21 counties in New Jersey. It’s just that you don’t see them much. They steer clear of humans as a rule. “Bears are pretty secretive in general,” she said.

New Mexico

Roswell: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state is committing $1.7 million to repair a collapsed bridge and implement additional flood mitigation strategies in the area. Lujan Grisham made the announcement Saturday next to the damaged bridge in northeast Roswell. The city has received close to 3 inches of rain so far this year and began experiencing intense flooding following severe torrential rainfall last year. The $1.7 million is coming from the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s State Road Fund. The funding will go to repairing the bridge and implementing flood mitigation measures to be ahead of the curve before the next major storm hits, according to Lujan Grisham. “The more we put into communities, so that we have safe roads, safe bridges, safe flood mitigation, the better it is for these communities,” she said. The bridge previously collapsed due to flooding in 2013. Though it was replaced, additional changes to address the flooding vulnerabilities were not implemented, according to Albuquerque TV station KOB.

New York

Melville: More sharks are being spotted in the waters off Long Island, a trend that is likely to continue – and experts say that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Cleaner oceans, warmer water temperatures and a resurgence of bunker fish that sharks feed on are seen as factors, according to experts. Detection, from drones to helicopters, also has improved, and reports are easily spread through social media. “There are a lot more sharks than 10 or 15 years ago,” Christopher Paparo, manager of Stony Brook University’s Marine Sciences Center, told Newsday. “In the 1960s, we did not have sharks, whales and dolphins.” Shark attacks in the area have been very rare until recently, with an average of about one reported per 10 years for the past century, Newsday reports. Within the past two weeks, two lifeguards suffered bites, and a third person was bitten in a possible shark attack, according to the newspaper. Experts say the increase in the number of sharks is a sign conservation efforts have succeeded in helping restore ecological balance to the oceans, after overfishing, pollution and a movement to kill sharks partly inspired by the 1975 movie “Jaws” reduced their numbers. Smaller sharks, seen closer to shore more often than larger ones, help keep prey species in check, and many shark types are scavengers that keep the ocean cleaner and healthier.

North Carolina

Charlotte: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will begin installing body-scanning equipment in its middle schools this summer to ensure students don’t have guns or other weapons. The district’s Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh told The Charlotte Observer of the plans Friday. The technology is already employed in all 21 of the district’s traditional high schools. “It may seem (like) an inconvenience, but I see it as a positive for our students,” Hattabaugh said. “This is another one of those important steps to keep our schools safe and orderly.” The technology will be rolled out in phases beginning in August, the newspaper reports. Its implementation comes after guns turned up in the district’s schools at a record rate during the previous school year.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection won’t restore hours of operation to pre-pandemic levels at some ports of entry in the state, despite pressure from Gov. Doug Burgum. In a letter to the agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent Friday, Burgum said the reduced hours at several North Dakota port crossings along the U.S.-Canadian border “causes significant hardship on the movement of citizens, goods and tourists between our two nations.” In a statement to the Associated Press on Friday, the federal agencies said longer opening hours cannot be justified because of the shrinking volume of traffic at the border crossings – a decline that began even before the pandemic. “For several years, pre-COVID, CBP documented a reduction in vehicles and pedestrian traffic along our northern border, and CBP’s obligation is to utilize all available resources responsibly to perform our mission of safeguarding the homeland,” the statement said. North Dakota has 17 border crossings, and the one at Pembina on Interstate 29 in the northeastern part of the state is the busiest. In April 2020, hours of operation were reduced by several hours in the evening at 10 of crossings. Hours also were shortened at some ports of entry in Montana, Minnesota, Idaho and Washington, and they will remain that way, agencies said.

Ohio

Columbus: A Democratic proposal to force “deadbeat dads” to pay for unintended pregnancies just got a boost from an unexpected source: Christian lobbyists. Senate Bill 226 would allow those who are pregnant to sue those who caused the pregnancy, regardless of the circumstances. A judge could award at least $5,000. State Sen. Tina Maharath, D-Columbus, said the bill is particularly important after Roe v. Wade was overturned, forcing people either to leave Ohio for abortions or to deliver babies from unintended pregnancies. Ohio law now bans abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy. At that point, many don’t yet realize they are pregnant. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. The average cost of childbirth in Ohio is $15,000, Maharath said. “Too often, this cost is solely the mother’s to bear, especially in the case of an unintended pregnancy. However, the father shares equal responsibility for the pregnancy, and it is only right that he pays equally for it.” On Friday, Center for Christian Virtue President Aaron Baer announced that his organization agrees. “Senator Tina Maharath’s legislation is an innovative approach to combat the hook-up culture that has led to broken lives, hurting women, and abandoned children,” Baer said in a statement.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: An influential political action committee that has helped elect Republicans to the state Senate has agreed to dissolve and pay a fine of more than $60,000 to the state after an investigation revealed multiple state campaign finance rule violations. The Republican Senatorial Committee entered into a settlement agreement Friday with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. The PAC officials acknowledged accepting more than $35,000 of impermissible contributions from corporations or contributions earmarked for a specific candidate or candidate committee. Both contributions violate state ethics rules. Glenn Coffee, the former Republican leader of the Senate and now an attorney representing the PAC, declined to comment on the settlement. Under the agreement, the PAC agreed to pay $37,750 to the state’s general fund, an amount equal to the impermissible contributions it accepted, plus another $25,000 in civil penalties. PAC officials also agreed to dissolve the committee and dispose of any remaining assets.

Oregon

Portland: The patience of Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters seems to be growing thin as the state continues to violate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants charged with crimes who cannot afford an attorney. “Hundreds who are constitutionally entitled to counsel are being denied that right, and no end is in sight,” Walters wrote in a letter sent July 1 to the eight commissioners who oversee the state’s public defense agency. Four times in her six-page letter, Walters called on the board to “direct” the executive director of the Office of Public Defense Services “to prepare a plan for presentation” at a meeting later this month, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. She said she seeks a plan that proposes immediate steps that will enable the Public Defense Services Commission to fulfill its obligation to provide lawyers for those who have a constitutional right to representation. The person she asked commissioners to direct is Stephen Singer, who took over the Office of Public Defense Services in December. Many of the problems facing the public defense system in Oregon go back years. Since last fall, the state has continued to charge people with crimes and hold some of them in custody, despite a shortage of public defenders.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: Nursing home trade associations in the state said Monday that they have agreed to boost staffing levels as part of a deal with Gov. Tom Wolf to increase aid to an industry struggling with high turnover. With Pennsylvania awash in surplus tax collections, Wolf on Monday signed legislation authorizing nearly $300 million a year – almost 20% more annually – in additional Medicaid payments to nursing homes, which were wracked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade associations had worked out a compromise on staffing levels with Wolf’s administration and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, a labor union that represents about 5,000 nursing home workers, prior to the legislation being signed. “This is a major step forward for Pennsylvania’s long-term care industry,” Wolf told a Capitol news conference after signing the measure. Officials say the money should boost worker salaries, staffing levels and retention while stabilizing the facilities’ finances and improving the quality of care. Matt Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, said the ravages of the pandemic on nursing homes helped persuade state budgetmakers to grant an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate. Pennsylvania’s Medicaid reimbursement rate increase is the first in almost a decade, trade associations said.

Rhode Island

Providence: A woman hired to work for a house cleaning service was fired just days later after management found out she was pregnant, the woman said in a discrimination lawsuit filed Monday. The suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island on behalf of Bristol resident Julia Schultz alleges the owners of Merry Maids of Rhode Island violated state civil rights law. Schultz applied for the house cleaner position in late April 2021, when she was about 16 weeks pregnant, according to the lawsuit. She attended an orientation program for new hires in early May 2021, during which the company’s co-owner asked if she was pregnant, according to the suit. When she confirmed she was, the co-owner said she could not offer her the job because of its “physical demands” and said she “should be at home taking care” of the baby. She then suggested Schultz reapply after the baby’s birth. “When I left the building that day, I felt so ashamed, like I was doing something wrong by trying to work while pregnant,” Schultz said. “Especially with Roe v. Wade getting overturned, it’s even more important now to fight for our rights, fight against the wealth gap between men and women, and empower women, not try to keep them down based on old, outdated traditions.”

South Carolina

Columbia: Two trains collided Monday morning, causing one of them to derail and leaving two railway employees hospitalized, according to the Columbia-Richland Fire Department. No additional injuries were expected. A diesel fuel leak was contained and posed no danger to the public or environment, Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey D. Jenkins told the Associated Press. The incident occurred in a wooded area in southeast Columbia with no nearby homes. The derailment will not negatively affect traffic or the environment, Jenkins said. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control was working with the fire department, private contractors and rail officials to reopen the rail line. Fire crews arrived on the scene shortly after the incident occurred about 8:20 a.m.

South Dakota

Rapid City: The U.S. Forest Service has given preliminary approval to a company that wants to do some exploratory drilling for gold in the Black Hills. The land involved is near the Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills National Forest and is owned by the federal government. Minneapolis-based F3 Gold has been seeking approval for its drilling project for several years. The Forest Service has now completed its final environmental assessment and issued a draft decision that would allow the drilling to move forward, but with numerous restrictions to protect cultural sites, water and other natural resources, South Dakota Public Broadcasting reports. The draft decision is subject to a 45-day objection period. The Forest Service would consider any objections before issuing a final decision. “After an exhaustive, multi-year process atypical for a small-scale exploration drilling project, we are pleased that we are finally getting our permit,” F3 Gold Vice President Brian Lentz said in a statement. The Forest Service draft decision allows for 47 drilling pads on more than 3 acres near Jenny Gulch. Lilias Jarding of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance said exploratory drilling could eventually lead to a gold mine, which could pollute the Pactola Reservoir, which is a popular recreational destination and a storage reservoir for water systems including Rapid City’s.

Tennessee

Martin: The University of Tennessee at Martin has committed to improving its landscape for pollinators and is now an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, officials said. Bee Campus USA is an initiative of the nonprofit Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The goal is to sustain pollinators by providing healthy habitats that include a variety of native plants without pesticides, the school said in a statement. “UT Martin serves a key agricultural region and protecting our bee population is necessary for our farms and communities,” UT Martin Chancellor Keith Carver said in a statement last week. UT Martin professor of wildlife biology Eric Pelren said the school has added more trees and plants that are beneficial to pollinators, is committed to minimizing the use of dangerous pesticides, and will work to raise awareness about pollinators.

Texas

Dallas: A pregnant woman ticketed for driving in a high occupancy vehicle lane plans to fight the charge in court by arguing that her unborn daughter now counts as a person. When an officer pulled Brandy Bottone over for driving by herself in a HOV lane just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she pointed to her belly. “I said, ‘Well, not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on, this counts as a baby,” said Bottone, who was eight months pregnant when she was pulled over June 29. Bottone, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Plano, said she’ll fight the ticket in court next week. Her story was first reported by The Dallas Morning News. “I was driving to pick up my son. I knew I couldn’t be a minute late, so I took the HOV lane,” she said. Bottone’s ticket came five days after the Supreme Court stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion. In Texas, that put in motion a trigger law that will ban virtually all abortions in the coming weeks and defines an unborn child as a living human from fertilization to birth. Bottone said the stand she’s taking on the ticket isn’t for or against abortion, but the law should be uniform. “If there’s a pro-women category, that’s my stance,” she said.

Utah

Park City: A member of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” pleaded guilty Monday to a fraud conspiracy charge that could result in a prison sentence of over 11 years. Jennifer Shah, 48, of Park City, entered the plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in Manhattan federal court after signing a plea agreement with New York prosecutors a day earlier that carries a recommended sentencing range of 11 to 14 years behind bars. She told a judge that beginning in 2012, she participated in a massive telemarketing fraud for nearly a decade that prosecutors say cheated thousands of people nationwide, including some over age 55. She said she knew that she was teaming up with others to market products to people “that had little or no value.” “I knew this was wrong and that many people were harmed, and I’m so sorry,” Shah told Judge Sidney H. Stein. Sentencing was set for Nov. 28. Shah remained free on bail but did not speak as she left the courthouse and walked a short distance to a waiting vehicle. In a statement afterward, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Shah a “key participant in a nationwide scheme that targeted elderly, vulnerable victims.”

Vermont

Burlington: Ten of the state’s immigrant farmworkers filed a joint petition June 20 for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop their deportations. The 10 farmworkers are all men from Mexico who have lived in Vermont for years. Some arrived to U.S. on the H-2A visa for temporary agricultural workers, but those visas have since expired, and the workers are now unable to obtain legal permission to live in the country. The 10 workers are also active members of Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based nonprofit that works for the human rights of Vermont’s immigrant communities. “I came to Vermont from Mexico when I was 16 years old and have been working on dairy farms ever since. I was pulled over by ICE in 2019 for no reason and detained,” Pedro Ubaldo, one of the ten workers, said through a translator. “Now they are trying to deport me to Mexico, but my life is here. I am fighting to stay in Vermont to provide for my family and organize with my community for a better future.” Migrant Justice said the men – who have been dubbed the “Migrant Justice 10” – were racially profiled by ICE and arrested for lacking immigration papers. They were each arrested separately over the past several years and incarcerated in immigration detention facilities until they were released on bond.

Virginia

Norfolk: New round-trip Amtrak routes began Monday between Washington, D.C., and two Virginia cities: Norfolk and Roanoke. The additions bring to eight the number of state-funded round trips from the nation’s capital, The Washington Post reports. “We’re adding more options for people at the right time,” said Michael McLaughlin, chief operating officer at the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. “Capacity on the trains is getting full, and ridership is at record-high levels.” The extra train to Norfolk will be the third round trip to the area, according to the newspaper. It will depart Norfolk at 1 p.m. and arrive in Washington in a little over 4.5 hours. A new southbound train will depart Washington at 12:05 p.m. Amtrak already runs one morning trip from Roanoke to D.C. and an evening return trip. Starting Monday, a new train will leave Washington for Roanoke at 8:05 a.m., and a Washington-bound train will leave Roanoke at 4:30 p.m., arriving shortly before 9:30 p.m. Amtrak, which expanded service to Richmond last year, said the additions will give riders more options to travel in Virginia and boost connections to the Northeast. Virginia is among 17 states that have state-sponsored Amtrak service, the Post reports.

Washington

Seattle: A new program in King County is tapping people who have experienced homelessness in the past to help currently unhoused people get off the street. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority hopes the program will get nearly every person living outside downtown into long-term, stable housing. Kirk Rodriguez does outreach work talking to people around Pioneer Square. Rodriguez used to be homeless when he moved to Seattle six years ago. After about two years on the street, he got into state-sanctioned housing. Rodriguez said that when he was figuring out where to live and finding other services he needed, he did it alone – he didn’t have anyone to help guide him through the process. “No, I did not; I wish that I had,” he told KUOW near City Hall Park recently. “It would have made a huge difference.” Rodriguez works on the City Hall Park Neighborhood Outreach Team, a group of about eight who go out multiple times a day to check with people in the area. The team gives out food, hand warmers, and toiletries like tampons and condoms. “If there’s somebody who’s looking like maybe they’re having a rough day or could use some snacks or whatever else, we’ll engage,” Rodriguez said. “We make sure to say hi no matter what.”

West Virginia

Rocket Center: Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to build a new missile integration facility in the state. The company announced plans last week to build the 113,000-square-foot facility to increase its capacity to deliver weapons to meet warfighter needs. “Our new missile integration facility is a factory of the future, designed to affordably produce high quantities of missiles to meet increasing customer demand,” said Mary Petryszyn, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Defense Systems. The facility won’t be limited to producing one type of missile but will be able to adapt manufacturing techniques to quickly pivot as demands change, the company said in a statement. Construction on the new facility is expected to be completed in 2024.

Wisconsin

Madison: Local health officers can unilaterally issue orders to slow diseases, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday in a decision upholding contentious orders limiting indoor gatherings and mandating masks that Dane County officials handed down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 4-3 decision affirms that state law grants local health officers the ability to do what they deem necessary to stop communicable diseases without oversight from governing bodies such as city councils and county boards. Liberal-leaning Justice Jill Karofsky wrote for the majority that Wisconsin law clearly authorizes public health officers to issue such orders and has since the state was a territory. She added that if local elected officials don’t like the orders, they can remove the health officer, creating a strong safeguard for the people. “Today’s ruling is a win for every resident of our community,” Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said. “This ruling ensures that our public health department will have the ability to keep our community safe – and that decision making will remain science-based.” The ruling marks the culmination of a lawsuit two parents filed in Dane County in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wyoming

Casper: A 24-hour fundraising campaign Wednesday will allow people to donate to more than 250 different nonprofits around the state through one online portal. WyoGives, an annual event begun in 2019 by the Wyoming Nonprofit Network, aims to amplify fundraising efforts and centralize access to donations, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Donors can look up the mission and other information of various organizations through wyogives.org, where they can search by cause, location and other information.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sanatorium suit, 7-Eleven shootings: News from around our 50 states